How often do you clean your rat's cage? (or other small animal..)?

Question

I just got 2 lovely rats and the more research I do into rats the more of a difference I see in how long I should go between cleanings...I am half tempted to just clean the cage everyday but I don't know, I was told once a week when I got my rats and then upon more research I have been told every 3 days or so, or just to clean out the rat poo, but honestly how on earth do you just clean out the poo? lol I realize that might sound silly but can anyone enlighten me?

Answer 1

you need to clean them as you said at least once a week. but you can clean them out how ever often you like it will just cost more and be more time consuming. i clean mine out everyday but that's only their litter box (i litter trained them). to train them inside the cage just get all soiled litter and put in a shallow smallish box and as rats are very clean and clever they will "click" on that that's where the toilet is. it only took mine a few days to learn. when they don't go in the box at first you will have to put the mess in the box (dirty in know but better in the long run!).

I properly scrub the cage once a week.It really is down to you on how much you can stand that little smell on how often you clean them. i would recommend litter training them ts simple and saves alot of time!

hope i helped janie

Answer 2

You should of known this before you brought them.

Thourghly once a week, but clean the bedding area every 3 days, removing any soiled bedding!

(:

Answer 3

well i have 6 gerbils and cleaning a cage everyday would be murder lol I think once every other week or when theres a smell cuse rats do smell if the cage isnt keep nice just dump it out but wash it out once a month so if theres any residue pee or p**p it gets out exspecaly if its an aquairim if its wire cage you maybe able to clean it less often since the smell isnt traped

Answer 4

Right okay, I can understand you having conflicting opinions, that always happens with pets!

You can trust my opinion - I have 6 rats,  have had another 4 previous and work at a rescue centre with rats so I've heard all the ideas and have came to the easiest and most realistic solution.

EVERY DAY - mop up urine on platforms and if possible take out any damp patches of the cage floor covering and clean out the poo - that's not as difficult as it sounds, you just have a bit of kitchen roll in your hands, stick your hand in the cage and pick up the droppings and bin them - simple! Honest :) It's best to do this in the morning when you're feeding them or the evening before you go to bed. This little bit of cleaning everyday will stop your rats from smelling and keep them healthy.

EVERY FEW DAYS - you may want to change their paper wool bedding every 3 or 4 days in case it gets a bit mucky from them sleeping on it. Bear in mind I don't mean the cage floor covering, just the extra fluffy stuff you put inside their houses okay?

ONCE A WEEK - fully clean out the cage - empty all of the floor covering into a bin bag, and disinfect the cage bottom and all of the accessories. Basically clean EVERYTHING in the cage and put in fresh new bedding and floor covering - you're right it would be ridiculous to do this every day! I do it twice a week, but only because I have 4 rats in one cage. For my pair of rats I only do it once a week, and provided you do that little bit of cleaning everyday, once a week is more than sufficient.

If you do this, and your rats are in a big enough cage (at least 4 cubic feet for the pair of them) then they will be healthy and will not smell in the slightest, even if they are males.

If you're still worried about removing the poo, I've usually found that rats being very clean animals, they choose one spot of the cage to be their toilet and then finding mess is really easy. If this doesn't happen, litter training them in easy....

LITTER TRAINING - buy a litter tray that fits into the cage. A Savic Rody litter tray for ferrets and rats is perfect and widely available. Fill this litter tray with a different bedding to your rats usual floor covering - for example, I use Back 2 Nature for my rats floor covering and Carefresh for their litter trays. Whenever you see rat p**p in the cage for the first few days, instead of binning them, pop them into the litter tray so the rats begin to associate the tray with p**p. If you ever catch you rats in the act of going to the toilet, pop them straight in the litter tray. You can get fantastic results by bringing the litter tray with you when your rats free-range - it's easy to see when free-ranging rats are about to go toilet, so you can just grab them and put them in the tray! Litter training is well worth it as it means you can let your rats free range, safe in the knowledge that if they need the loo they'll come back to the tray to do it. It also makes daily cleaning easier for you, because you can just empty the tray into the bin - much quicker than trying to pick out individual poos I assure you!

Hope this helps!

Answer 5

Hi,i owned male rats & they needed clean out completely every 2-3 days max,as they would stink to high heaven! if they are female rats then 3- maybe 4 days max. Rats & mice are pretty clean,but never the less smelly pets,i am not just being cruel as i love rats & mice!

I also own gerbils these are desert animals so produce less urine or poos.

This also means that these only need to be clean out,about once every 2 weeks,as long as there is plenty of bedding provided.Rabbits & guinea pigs once to twice a week. You just clean out the poo's the WHOLE cage should be cleaned out! Also a disinfectant for small animals should be sprayed after cleaning out the rats to help with the smell.

Hope this helps.

x*x

Answer 6

u get tem litter trained so they poo in a tray or somin to do that he coner they poo in get a tray and put there poo in the try they will think theve been to toiollet in tere already

and clean the cage out every week do a scedual like every monday clean them out  

Answer 7

How often to clean out depends on what pets you have, how large their cage is, what bedding you use etc.

For example, guinea pigs p**p a LOT so need more frequent cleaning out in this respect. If you were to just use newspaper as a bedding for any species (not recommended!) you would need to change it every day because it would be gross. And obviously a small cage gets dirty and smelly far more quickly than a large cage.

If your rats are in a large enough cage, on decent bedding (eg aspen or carefresh) they shouldn't need cleaning out more than once per week.

If the cage is too small for this you will need to either clean out more often, or do spot cleanings in between times (i.e. remove the wet patches and poops).

I know with mice - and I believe the same is true of rats - they communicate a lot by smell, and urine marking. A full clean out is actually very stressfull for them. It is therefore not recommended you do it more than is necessary.

However, you do need to keep the cage hygenically clean - so never let it get too dirty. I wouldn't suggest leaving it longer than a week anyway (regardless of cage size) because the poops will start to rot!

Answer 8

once a week..usually on saturdays

Answer 9

you should clean the cage at least once a week but it would be better to clean their cage twice a week but i really dont think it is not necessary to clean the cage every day.

hope this helps